What Is Diversity

Diversity in its simplest terms means variety. Diversity is everywhere, in neighborhoods, our workplace, schools, and communities. To address diversity in relation to people would be to say that diversity is a variety of characteristics that make an individual unique. According to the University of Tennessee (2003), these characteristics consist of a person’s age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, physical traits, language spoken, relationship status, cultural and economical background, level of education, religious beliefs and political affiliation.

People are characterized by many things, more often their appearance; unfortunately, it is my belief that society has placed stigmas on people who do not conform to what is considered the norm. Admittedly so, I judge others by superficial characteristics. For instance, if a person’s clothes look disheveled and their hair unkempt I assume that they are not trustworthy, unclean and probably on drugs. In contrast, when I see a person who is dressed neatly and drives a nice vehicle, I assume they are educated, have a high paying job and own a home.

Week one’s assignment was to view a multimedia analysis and try to match pictures of people based a provided profile. In my opinion, the multimedia analysis confirmed again that people are first characterized by superficial characteristics, Tammy is an example such characterization. Her profile stated she was born in Syracuse, NY on August 7, 1975, and lived in an upscale suburb of Rochester NY during her childhood.

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She graduated high school at the age of 17, moved to Ohio and attended Miami University of Ohio to study political science, upon her graduation moved to Phoenix AZ where she is now attending the University of Phoenix obtaining her master’s degree in education. The profile pictures show three different women, the first profile picture is of an attractive woman who is neatly dressed in casual chic clothing, sitting in front of a flowered bush smiling confidently. The second profile picture is of a woman wearing glasses who is dressed frumpy standing in front of a building with her hands crossed and what seems to be an unconfident smile.

Lastly, the third profile picture is of a woman who appears to be in her twenties, she is dressed very casual and sitting at a table holding a coffee. Tammy’s background of living in an upscale neighborhood when she was a child and that she moved out of state to attend college led me to assume she is financially stable. Based on that perception alone, I looked at the three women and observed their outer appearance to determine which woman looked the most stable financially.

My assumption led me to choose the first profile picture when in fact the second profile picture was the correct one. Another example would be of Michelle. Michelle was born in 1981 in Belfast Northern Ireland, she moved to Arizona when she was three, returned to Ireland when she was five, and finally, when she was 10, moved back to Mesa, Arizona. Her profile states she does not have an Irish accent because she was taunted when she was a child. Again, the instructions were to select the profile picture that best fit the profile description.

Of the three profiles one stood out the most, the first one. It is of a red haired woman wearing what appears to be an after five dress, pearl necklace and bracelet with a black shawl resting upon her shoulders. Her head is tilted to the right and she has a very peculiar smile. I chose the first profile picture based solely upon superficial characteristics like her red hair, her odd smile, and her style of dress. The reasoning is most people of Irish decent have red hair, and in my opinion, she looks as though she likes to partake in drinking alcoholic beverages.

To prove my assumption her life story stated she can be found hanging out with her friends at concerts and bars. The last profile I selected is Katrina. Katrina, born in Brazil, has been residing in the United States for the last nine years and is a self proclaimed goof. Katrina has dual citizenship with Brazil and the United States. She is educated, and married with a three year old son. The profile pictures provided were of three women, the first one is of a tan woman with reddish hair, the second is a woman with olive toned skin and dark hair and the third woman is very fair skin with brownish hair.

I selected the second woman because in my opinion Brazilian women have dark hair and have olive toned skin. The first woman looked Hipic while the third woman appeared to be Caucasian. Diversity is everywhere; it is a variety of characteristics that make a person unique. Maya Angelou once said, “We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color. " Diversity is everywhere; it is a variety of characteristics that make a person unique.

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